Behavior

Six Ways to Sell

Finding success as a salesperson has as much to do with who you are as what you’re peddling. There is no one right way to sell. In fact, by our count, there are six. The author of The Art of the Sale, out this month from Penguin, enumerates the six salesman archetypes, from the Wooer (e.g., Bill Clinton, Silvio Berlusconi), who persuades through seduction and cajoling; to the Outsider (e.g., Estée Lauder), who trades on his or her humble background; to the Ace (e.g., Mark Zuckerberg), who doesn’t need to lift a finger to sell to you because he’s the only name in the game.

Philip Delves Broughton, the former Paris bureau chief for Britain's Daily Telegraph, graduated from Harvard Business School in 2006. His account of his time there, Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School, was published by Penguin Press in 2008. He is also the author of The Art of the Sale (Penguin, April).